Stocking, knitted fabric, and their method of production



H. B. SNADER Jan. 5, 1943.

STOCKING, KNITTED FABRIC, AND THEIR METHOD OF PRODUCTION Original FiledNov. 29, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR HOWARD B. SNADER BY q 4 i 5ATTORNEY Jan. 5, 1943. H. B. SNADER STOCKING, KNITTED FABRIC, AND THEIRMETHOD OF PRODUCTION Original Filed Nov. 29, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Huh-lg ll |-u- BlTVENTOR HOWARD NADER ATTORN EY Patented Jan. 5, 19 43STOCKING, KNITTED FABRIC, AND THEIR METHOD PRODUCTION Howard B. Snader,Temple, Pa. assignor to Vanity Fair Silk -Mills, Readln Originalapplication November 29, 1939, Serial No. 306,617. Divided and thisapplication December-12, 1940, Serial No. 369,695

6 Claims. The present invention relates to stockings,

articles of wearing apparel, and .to the fabric incorporated thereinandits method of producton, and has for its primary object theincorporation in an article of wearing apparel of a strain absorbingzone or sectionthat will yieldably absorb the stresses created in theuse of the article.

' Another object of the invention resides in .the construction of, thestrain absorbing section of elastic yarn in a manner that the normaltendency thereof to curl is eliminated.

Another object of the invention resides in knitting into a knittedarticle of wearing apparel as a continuous knitting operation. a knittedstrain absorbing fabric or section that is capable of yieldable stretchin two directions, and which will not curl.

Another object of the invention resides in a method of knitting finegauge elastic yarn into a knitted fabric under predetermined tension andrelieving the yarn (after knitting the same into courses (of apredetermined amount of tension so as to eliminate the tendency of theknitting fabric to curl.

Besides the above, my invention relates to a method whereby certainloops of certain courses that are knitted of elastic yarn are displacedor spread out of normal position so as .to change the direction ofelastic pull of the loops formed from the tensioned yarn, or to relievethe same of tension, thereby eliminating the tendency 'of 'the fabricknitted from the elastic yarn to curl.

With these and other objects in view, my invention will bebetter-understood from the fol lowing detailed description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a sideelevation of a stocking constructed'in accordance withthe invention;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of a knitted fabricincorporating a strain absorbing section consisting of a plurality ofsucceeding interlooped courses of elastic yarn, alternate courses havingloops transferred so as to allow the spreading of associated loops forunte'nsion-.

ing the yarn in the various courses;

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of a lmitted fabricincorporating astrain absorbing section consisting of an alternatingarrangement of courses of elastic yarn and inelastic yarn, certain loopsin the courses of inelastic yarn being transferred to allow thespreading and untensioning of associated loops in the courses of elasticyarn;

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view of a portion of ing section consistingof a plurality of succeeding interlooped courses of elastic yarn, eachhaving loops transferred in a single direction to change the directionof elastic elastic loops;

Figure 5 is a plan view of a knitted fabric incorporating a strainabsorbing section which may be provided with'finished selvedge edges orwith unfinshed selvedge edges;

Figure 6 is a plan view of a fashioned knitted fabric incorporating astrain absorbing section which may be provided with finished selvedgeedges or unfinished selvedge edges;

Figure '7 is an enlarged diagrammatic view of a portion of the fabricsillustrated in Figures 5 and 6.

The present application, which is a division of my application SerialNumber 306,617, filed November 29,-1939, illustrates and describes astocking and piece goods fabrics, with or without selvedge edges, andfashioned or unfashioned, but I wish it to be understood that theinvention'is adaptable to various types of fabrics and various types ofwearing apparel, such as corsets, bras- 'sires, dresses, etc., the mainpurpose of the invention being to provide a two way elastic,

stretch knitted 'strain absorbing' section in an article of w'earingapparel capable of elastically stretching in two directions so as torelieve the article of successive strains in the use thereof.

In the knitting of fine gauge elastic yarn into a knitted fabric so asto provide a. strain absorbing 'section, (the section has a tendency tocurl along its paralleling upper and lower edges, which produces anunsightly appearance, and materi-.

ally reduces the sales appeal thereof. I have discovered, over anextendedperiod of experimentation, that this tendency of the strainabsorbing a knitted fabric incorporating a strain absorb-s5 section tocurl is due .to many unavoidable conditions, such as the use of veryfine gauge elastic v yarn, the knitting of elastic yarn under tension,

and the tendency of the elastic loops to contract in size after theknitting operation.

I have further discovered that these heretofore unavoidable conditions'can be overcome 'by changing the direction of elastic pull of the loopsafter the knittingthereof, or by allowing certain loops to spread beyondtheir normal size and shape after knitting, to relieve the elastic yarnin the various courses of its. abnormal elastic tension.

I have still further discovered that it is of the pull of thetransferred H rection of pull of the elastic loops, or the spreading ofthe other loops beyond their normal size and shape, will not properlyrelieve the elastic yarn of the requireddegree of initial tension, andthus their strain absorbing section will have a certain degree of curl.f

This initial tension of the yarn during the knit ting thereof on highgauge knitting machines (such as full-fashioned hosiery knittingmachines) can be reduced to the necessary low degree .by relieving thepull of the yarn from the cone, such as by the use of the device shownin issued Patent No. 2,030,477. This will relieve the tensioning of theyarn in its feed from the source of supply. However, I have discoveredthat the sinkers and dividers of the knitting machine are another sourceof tensioning. In the use of the sinkers and dividers, the elastic yarnis crimped, and to perform this crimping operation, it is necessary thatthe. yarnbe forced between the needles in a lateral direction apredetermined degree. In forcing the yarn, the same will stretch, andwhen this stretched yarn is knitted into loops, the loops are under anelastic strain which tends to contract the size of the loops in theflninshed fabric, thereby creating a pull walewise of the strainabsorbing fabric, causing the upper and lower edges thereof to curl.

A very important feature of my invention is to change the direction ofthe elastic pull of the loops so as to reduce the curling action and, inmost cases,entirely eliminate the same. This desired result can also beaccomplished by allowing certain loops of the elastic courses to spreadbeyondtheir normal size and shape to untension the yarns in the variouscourses.

Referring particularly to the drawings illusdegree so that the action ofthe transferred loops trating several of the many forms of my invention,the numeral I designates a stocking consisting of a welt fabric 2, a legfabric 3,'and a foot fabric 4. The welt fabric 2 may be of the single ordouble ply type well known in the art, and just below the welt fabric islocated my. improved strain absorbing section or zone 5. This zone 5 maybe knitted of an alternating arrangement of elastic and inelastic yarns,or entirely of elastic yarns, and the courses of yarn may be knitted invarious ways, such as illustrated in the drawings.

Figure 2 diagrammatically illustrates a few courses 8 of the weltfabric, a group of courses I of the leg fabric, and the strain absorbingfabric 5 which, in this particular instance, consists of a number ofsucceeding interlooped courses of elastic yarn 8 alternating courses 9of which have predetermined loops i0 transferred so as to allowassociated loops Ii in associated courses to spread beyond their normalsize and shape to untension the elastic yarn in thetvarious courses.

In Figure 3, I have eliminated the curling of the strain absorbingfabric by transferring a PIG? determined number of loops H of thecourses l3 knitted of inelastic yarn so that the associated loops l4 ofthe courses knitted of elastic yarn may spread beyond their normal sizeand shape to relieve said courses of elastic yarn of their initialtension during the knitting operation. Attention is called to the factthat, although I have shown single courses of inelastic yarn alternatingwith single courses of elastic yam in Figure 3, any desired number ofsucceeding'interknit courses of elastic yarn may be positioned inalternating arrangement with any desired number of succeeding interknitcourses of inelastic yarn.

Referring to Figure 4, I have illustrated an arrangement whereby thedirection of elastic pull of the loops in their attempt to relievethemselves of the abnormal elastic tension is changed so as to minimizethe tendency of the strain absorbing section to curl. To accomplish thisdesired result, a predetermined number of loops IS in succeeding coursesare transferred into overlapping arrangement with the plain loops it ofassociated wales I1. Thus it will be appreciated that these transferredloops extend at an angle to the plain loops of the wales l1; and I havediscovered that when the direction of pull of the loops is angularlydisposed in relation to the walewise aligna wa'lewise' direction, thatis to say,'in a direction i at right angles to the edges of the fabricsection 5. Thus the maximum elastic mill is in a di-,

rection to create a curling action of the edge por tions of the fabricsection.

Due to thefact that only certain of the loops are transferred, there is.a walewise stress of .certain loops of the fabric section and anangularv stress ofotherloops ofthe fabric section, and the coaction ofthese elastic stresses reduces the tendency ofthe entire fabric sectionto curl.

It is a very important feature of the invention that the initial elastictension of the loops after the knitting thereof is reduced to arelatively low can fully neutralize the initial tension of all loops ofthe fabric section.

. From the foregoing, it will bev understood that I provide two methodsof untensioning the courses: first, the spreading beyond normal size andshape of certain loops after they are knitted to untension the elasticcourses; and second, the transferring of loops to change the directionof elastic pull of certain of the loops. I

Referring to Figure 5, I have disclosed a knit.-

ted piece goods fabric which may be provided with raw edges or finishedselvedge edges, such a as indicated by the numerals l8 and I! in Figure.

7. In the knitting of pi'ece goods for any commercial purpose, such asincorporation in various articles of wearing apparel, the piece goods isprovided with two fabricated end sections 20 and 2| connected togetherby a strain absorbing section which may beknitted in various ways, as

hereinbefore set forth.

I also wish it to be understood in relation to Figure 5 that the endsections 20 and 2| may be warp knitted, weft knitted, of lace construc-:tion, orof woven-construction but, in any case, the section 2? isfabricated as hereinbefore de-,

scribed.

Referring to Figure 6, I have shown a flat type of knitted fabricfashioned along lines 23 and 24. Thus the same, is provided withfashioned selvedge edges knitted, as shown at.l8 in Figure '7, inaccordance with method well known in the art.

It is within the scope of my invention to knit .the strain absorbingfabric in the form of a nar-} row strip knitted, as hereinbefore setforth, and

having finished selvedge edges'which are attached to the fabricatedsections, such as, sections 20 and 2| illustrated in Figure 5, by aseaming, topp 0r looping operation.

The fine ga ge yarn used in the utilization of my invention ispreferably of the type disclosed in the Adamson Patent No. 1,822,847. Ithas been proven that the yarn must be of the fine type illustrated inthis patent to be practical in the operation of fine gauge knittingmachines now in use, particularly the type used for the production ofsheer hosiery.

I am aware of the fact that, previous to the Adamson patent, heavy typesof elastic yarns were knitted into fabric, but the gauge of the yarn wassuch that when knitted into the fabric, the fabric did not have atendency to curl; also the size of the yarn was such that it was notknitted under tension, and thus the manufacturing difliculties which arecharacteristic in the knitting of fine gauge elastic yarns were notexperienced. However, heavy gauge yarns cannot be practically knittedinto sheer types of knitted fabrics, and as the present inventionrelates particularly to high gauge types of knitted fabrics involvingmanufacturing diillculties not characteristic of low gaugeknitted-fabrics, it will be readily understood that my inventionovercomes a specific problem in a specific art, which is substantiatedby the fact that my invention has been successfully commercialized inlarge quantitles to date.

Having described my invention, what I claim 1. A stocking comprising aleg portion, a garter attaching portion at the top thereof, and a strainabsorbing zone between said leg and arter attaching portions in whichplain loop nating with single courses of fine inelastic yarn havingloops of spaced wales laterally transferred and doubled with loops ofother wales whereby loops of spaced wales of the single elastic coursesof plain loops are spread.

3. A stocking comprising a legporti'on, a garter attaching portion atthe top, and 'a strain absorbing section between said leg and garterattaching portions consisting of single plain loop courses of fineelastic yarn alternatingwith single plain loop courses of fine inelasticyarn in which loops of spaced wales are laterally transferred anddoubled with loops of other wales whereby those locps of spaced wales ofall the single plain loop elastic courses associated with thetransferred loops are spread in size.

4. A fabric having a strain absorbing section consisting of single plainloop courses of fine elastic yarn alternating with single plain loopcourses of fine inelastic yarn in which loops of spaced wales arelaterally transferred and doubled with loops of other wales wherebyassociated loops in spaced wales of the courses of elastic yarn arespread in size.

5. A method of knitting in a stocking a strain absorbing section whichcomprises: knitting a single course ofloops of fine gauge inelasticyarnand, during the knitting of said course. transferring loops and doublingthe transferred loops with loops of other wales; then knitting a secondsingle course of loops of fine gauge elastic yarn and interlooplng theloops thereof with the loops of the first course wherein those loopsassociated with said transferred loops expand in size; and repeating theforegoing cycle of knitting throughout the width of the section.

6. A method of knitting in a fabric a strain absorbing section whichcomprises: knitting a single course of loops of fine gauge inelasticyarn and, during th knitting of said course, transferring loops anddoubling the transferred loops with loops of other wales; then knittinga second single course of loops of fine gauge elastic yarn andinterlooplng the loops thereof with the loops of the first coursewherein those loops associated with said transferred loops expand insize; and repeating the foregoing cycle of knitting throughout the widthof the section.

HOWARD B. SNADER.

